The present invention relates to electrical inductors, and more particularly to thermal management of an electrical inductor assembly, as well as a method of cooling the electrical inductor assembly.
Electrical inductors are commonly used in circuits for various reasons, such as filtering electrical current. A typical inductor includes a core material and a plurality of insulated wires wrapped around the core multiple times, with each wire corresponding to a phase of electrical current. One application for an inductor is as part of a power filter in a motor controller. In vehicle motor control systems, particularly aerospace systems, it is desirable to reduce the size and weight of components. Unfortunately, reducing the size of an inductor reduces an inductor's surface area of the inductor, thereby making heat dissipation more difficult. Additionally, current materials employed often have poor thermal conductivity, which therefore hinders efforts to thermally couple the core to cooling elements and to dissipate heat from the core. Reduced heat dissipation is particularly disadvantageous based on the high temperature sensitivity that the core material and the wires have.